


Piece By Piece

by GalaxyGhosty



Category: JackSepticEye (YouTube RPF), Markiplier (YouTube RPF)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Kid!Fic, M/M, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-28
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 13:47:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4223967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyGhosty/pseuds/GalaxyGhosty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. A story about a family of two, then three, then two again, told in all the wrong order. But hey, it ends alright.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Piece By Piece

**Author's Note:**

> Kid!Fic? Kid!Fic. 
> 
> It's my first one ever, actually. And I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm not sure what really spurred me to write this, I was just hanging out this morning and suddenly, suddenly this idea came to me, and I wanted to try and tackle it. If nothing else, it shows me what I'm good at and what I'm bad at, pfft. 
> 
> But yeah. I've written in this style before, not for this fandom, and I personally like it. But it's really weird and non-linear at times so I won't be surprised if you guys don't like it. I'll keep writing in this style at a minimum--save it for special occasions like this fic :P
> 
> Enjoy! 
> 
> Also some quick translation notes:
> 
> A stór (uh stohr): Literally “my treasure."  
> A thaisce (uh HASH-keh): Also “my treasure.”  
> A leanbh (uh LAN-uv): Literally “my child.” 
> 
> These translations are taken from [this](http://www.bitesize.irish/blog/irish-endearments/) site. Any mistakes are mine and if you're fluent, feel free to correct me.

_“When is Mister Mark coming back?”_

_“I don't know, a thaisce. Probably never.”_

~~

It starts with the broken glass.

Jack knows better than to put the glasses up in the tallest cabinet, because as stupid as that sounds, it's safer to put them in the lower ones, closer to the floor. Sure it hurts his back to bend over sometimes but it keeps them from falling down if Sam decides she wants to crawl up onto the counter to grab her favorite green cup. Sam is never interested in the lower cabinets because she can always reach them—instead she wants the higher cabinets that seem to be off-limits to her. It took a while, but Jack learns this and this is when he starts moving anything breakable to the lower cabinets. 

He's had this system from years. Breakables, down. Non-breakables, up. People might think he's stupid but it keeps his daughter safe, after all these years, and now that she's nine he feels pretty confident in himself and his quirks. She's survived this long with him as a father.

When Sam is about six she asks him if he'll ever date anyone again before she falls asleep, and that she doesn't care if she gets another mommy or a daddy, she just wants him to be happy. His daughter's love and understanding touches him, but that night he kisses her on the head as he tucks her in, telling him that he's happy with her and that's all he needs.

(She doesn't like the idea, anyhow. She vows to find someone for him.)

This is how he meets Mark. Sam catches the way he stares at the beautiful man (she's quite perceptive for an six year old) on a snowy day in February and she runs over to him before he can stop her. She tugs on his coat and says in these exact words, with her tiny lilted voice, “My daddy thinks you're cute. Will you talk to him?”

Jack is mortified, but the man laughs and raises his eyes to Jack. They are as beautiful as Jack had originally perceived, and he had walked over, introduced himself, and invited him out for coffee. He thinks it might be just to please his daughter, but he agrees, a stuttering mess and Sam cheers her little heart out. 

He goes on that date. He leaves Sam with her Uncle Felix and Aunt Marzia, who are more than willing to take the little tyke on. She is a bundle of energy like her father, but if anyone can handle her, it's those two. 

Jack gets to know Mark. The man had asked him out to coffee just to placate the little girl, because of his soft spot for children, he says, but he mentions with a wink that it helped that Jack was cute. He makes Jack laugh and smile and his heart soars a little, reminding him that he hasn't felt anything for anyone since Sam's mother, before the split. After three hours, Mark asks him on another date and Jack can't tell himself to say no. 

That date leads to another. And another. And another. Which eventually leads to Mark being a permanent fixture in his life for the next three years. They hold hands, hug, kiss, and Mark treats Sam as if she were his own daughter. He comes by the house so often that Jack gets used to him being there, and it's only normal that he invites him to move in, during those three years.

It is the biggest mistake Jack has ever made. 

For as much as Jack loves Mark, he will put his daughter above anything else. Mark does not understand Jack's system. Mark puts breakables up top, and non-breakables down below. Sam does not know this. Jack does not know this. He doesn't know until he hears cluttering in the kitchen, glass shattering, and Sam screaming. 

This is the night. It starts with broken glass.

Jack rushes to the kitchen. Glass shards surround his daughter and she's crying in the middle of the floor. Nine is responsible but Sam has always been a little clumsy, like him, and he can't think about how responsible she should be in his frenzy to make sure she's okay. When Mark scrambles in a few moments later, Jack can't help but whirl on him, howling at the top of his lungs. 

Jack demands to know how he could be so stupid, how he could ruin the system so badly, how he could put his daughter's health at risk for being so stupid. He demands to know why Mark thinks he can change up everything they know, how Mark thinks he's so special that he can ruin the very fragile family he has built for himself here.

He tells Mark to leave and never bother him again, before Mark ever gets a word in.

But Mark goes, and Jack takes his daughter to the bathroom to clean her up, and make sure none of the glass shards are stuck in her.

It had been a mistake to bring Mark into his family. 

~~

_“Daddy, it stings.”_

_“I know, a stór, I know. It'll stop in a little bit.”_

_“Mister Mark always gives me the green bandaids when he fixes up my ouchies.”_

_“Then I'll give you a green one. Please hold still.”_

~~

In the aftermath of cleaning up, he feels like a wreck. Jack has put Sam to bed and she sleeps soundly in her room, and as he sponges and sweeps up the remnants of the glass, his heart aches for Mark. 

He knows he shouldn't have snapped at him as he did. Yes, Mark had made a mistake, but they all do, and it was wrong of him to do as he did. 

Perhaps it has been the tension. Jack has had one too many dealings with Sam's mother over visitation rights, and he had thought that the issue had been settled ages ago. Sam is supposed to live with Jack for a majority of the year and Sam goes to her mother on holidays. It is how she had wanted it, but apparently she feels like she'd been cheated on time, or something, and God-Knows-What, and they had been fighting about it. It has been sorted, now, but still the paranoia of losing Sam grates at him. 

Him and Mark haven't been so steady, either. Jack teaches English at the high school, and finals are coming up left and right and he's much too tired to do anything with Mark, given that he's so busy working through everything. Whenever he gets home he goes straight into grading papers or finishing up whatever he hadn't during class, and when he's done all he wants to do is sleep. He's neglected Mark a lot these last few months. 

Neither of these things excuse his actions. But perhaps it is why.

Regardless, when he calls Mark's phone to apologize and ask him to come home, he gets Mark's voice mail right off the bat. The phone is off. 

He goes to sleep that night feeling cold and alone, even though Sam is in the room over.

~~

_“Did you need something, a stór?”_

_“Are you okay, Daddy?”_

_“Yes, I'm alright.”_

_“Why are all the lights out in here?”_

_“I want it to be dark.”_

_“Daddy, have you been crying?”_

_“No, of course not. But, a leanbh, will you come lay with me, for a while?”_

~~

Mark never answers the phone. It seems he makes good on Jack's words to never bother him again. Apparently, bothering him entails not even answering Jack's calls. Or maybe he's never gotten them. 

Regardless, he tries to make life as normal as possible without Mark. He can tell that Sam misses him from the way that she asks Jack to do the things that Mark would do for her, like green bandaids and make smiley faces with the fruit on her pancakes. She doesn't ask about him anymore but knows that she wants to.

Jack wonders how much she remembers of Jack screaming at Mark, because she had been crying while he did so. It's entirely possible Sam blames him for Mark's absence. He doesn't know what to say to her.

But Jack is miserable. He misses the warmth beside him in bed every night. He misses the way that before he even woke up his coffee was freshly made on the counter. He misses lazy morning kisses and cuddles, misses the laughter that filled his days and nights. 

Most of all, he misses Mark himself, the presence of him, because the house feels too empty now, too used to its third member. 

It's been a week since Mark has left. Two days after, he gets a blank envelope in the mail, and when he opens it, it's a key to the house. His heart breaks in two, because it can only be Mark's. 

(But isn't this what he wanted?)

~~

_“Sammy, where's your Dad?”_

_“He's in his room with all the lights off, Uncle Felix.”_

_“Why are all the lights off?”_

_“He says he wants them off.”_

_“Is he okay?”_

_“No, Daddy's sick. I think he misses Mister Mark.”_

_“What? What happened? Where's Mark?”_

_“Daddy told him to leave and never bother him again.”_

~~

Jack spends a lot more time in bed than he should. He gets up, goes to work, comes home and just lays in bed, thinking a lot about Mark and himself. Mark's key sits on the nightstand and he stares at it, fiddles with it, and grows increasingly more frustrated.

A large part of him is angry with Mark. Yes, Jack had told him to leave and never come back, but Mark should know Jack has a terrible temper, especially concerning Sam. Yet he's gone and he hasn't shown any sign of returning, more so now since he no longer has his key. A fraction of him feels like maybe Mark has been looking for a way out, and this is his ticket.

More of him is angry at himself for not confiding in Mark, for not letting him take some of the burden. He'd bottled it all up and then let it explode, and he's so fucking pissed at himself for it that he feels inadequate. Inadequate at everything. At being a friend, a boyfriend, a father.

Jack doesn't neglect in his duties of being a father. But he becomes just that, basically a father, not a Daddy. He stops spending time with Sam and wallows in his own self-hate and self-pity.

In a sense, this could be his punishment. His own guilt eats away at him. He should be nurturing Sam, but he doesn't. It's what he gets for trying to fix what wasn't broken. It's what he gets for trying to add one more to his already full heart. He should never have let Mark in. 

He wallows until Felix barges into his room, turns on all the lights, slams the door and snaps him out of his stupor. He goes on one of his perfect, long, un-eloquent speeches about how he needs to get his ass up, shave, take a shower, and get himself together because he has a daughter waiting to be loved and a best friend to go out with. 

Sam ends up having a girl night with Marzia and Felix takes Jack out to dinner, and they talk for a while. Felix is his best friend for a reason, and after he tells him about all that's happened with Mark, Felix vows to at least try to find Mark, so that some peace of mind can be achieved.

Jack just wants his life to be normal again. He shares this with Felix.

Felix tells him his life won't be normal until Mark returns, and Jack is at a loss of what to think about that. 

~~

_“Daddy.”_

_“Yes, Sam?”_

_“Why is Mister Mark gone, when you really, really miss him?”_

_“Because Daddy did a bad thing. And Daddy has to pay for it.”_

_“But I thought if you were sorry, then all would be okay?”_

_“Not always, a leanbh. I'm sorry.”_

_“Is it because you didn't apologize?”_

_“He's not here to apologize to.”_

_“We'll find him, Daddy. Mister Mark is really good at playing hide and seek, you know.”_

_“You're so sweet, a stór. I love you, Sammy girl.”_

_“I love you too, Daddy. Mister Mark does, too.”_

~~

Felix doesn't come around again and doesn't contact him, but Jack manages to convince himself that it's because he's busy, not because he doesn't care. He hopes he's right.

While Sam watches cartoons in the living room after school, Jack scrolls through his phone and computer, gazing upon the various memories he's made with Mark over the last few years. Each picture makes his heart swell, and then break, because no longer are they the same two people in the photographs.

Sam comes in on him a while later, saying that's she hungry, and when she sees her father crying at his desk, she doesn't ask any questions. She lets him kneel down next to her and hug her tightly, sobbing into her tinier shoulder. 

After that, Jack makes dinner for her with red-rimmed eyes, teetering on the edge of holding it together and falling apart. 

That night, Jack tucks her into bed, calls Mark again, not expecting an answer, but this time, the ringer goes all the way through with no answer. 

“I'm sorry,” he croaks, when the beep sounds, indicating a voice mail is now recording. “Please come home. Talk to me, Mark. I take it back. I take it all back. Come home. _Come home_.”

He doesn't care that Mark doesn't fit into his little family. He'll make room. He wants him there. 

Jack doesn't know Sam is listening to him.

~~

_“What do you mean she's gone?”_

_“I can't find her, Felix. I can't fucking find her and I'm losing my goddamn mind because she's all I have left. If I don't have her, I haven't got anything and I need her, Felix. You have to help me find her!”_

_“Are you sure she's not just, I don't know, at a friend's house? Still at the school? Down the street? Have you called the police yet?”_

_“I've checked everywhere. She never leaves without telling me. She's nine, for Christ's sake. Yes, I've called the police. She didn't come home from school. Felix, Felix--”_

_“Shh, Jack. We'll find her. I promise, we'll find her. She'll turn up soon. Nothing bad has happened, I'm sure of it.”_

_“My heart can't take this, Felix.”_

_“You need to be strong. You have to be strong for her.”_

_“I'm not strong.”_

_“Yes, you are, man. Yes, you are.”_

~~

The first hour of Sam being missing leads into two hours, then three hours, and three hours in he notices the picture on the entertainment center is gone.

He grabs the frame, looking it over. It isn't damaged but the photograph is definitely gone, and he remembers suddenly that the photograph had been one of Mark, himself, and Sam, all smiling together. Jack is frantic—why had Sam taken it? It must have been her. It had been here all this time, until now...

The police comb the area for any traces of his daughter, and had informed him to stay home, that staying home is the best way to help the police find her. But Jack cannot sit still, cannot think straight, how is he meant to when the only thing precious to him is somewhere, cold and alone? What if she's scared, or wants her father to hold her? He isn't there, and he promised her he'd always-- 

Jack cannot stand by. He grabs his coat and wraps it around him with shaking fingers before grabbing his keys from the hook. He throws open the front door and heads down the sidewalk, but before he can get anywhere, he almost runs face-first into something solid. 

The sun is sinking. It's dusk. And before him stands Mark, holding his little girl in his arms, fast asleep. 

~~

_“Sam, oh God, Sam. Come here, come here a thaisce, a stór, a leanbh. Please, please don't ever scare me like that again.”_

_“Daddy, Daddy, it's okay! I found him, I found Mister Mark. He gave me hot chocolate. Then he said he was taking me home, which I guess is good, but I must've fallen asleep because now I'm here when I was there, at first...”_

_“Yes, he did, he brought you home. My sweet girl, you're so cold. Come on, let's get you a bath started.”_

_“Okay, Daddy. But I brought him home, like I said! Aren't you happy?”_

_“I'm happy that you're safe, a thaisce. That's all that matters to me.”_

~~

Jack contacts the police once he gets Sam's bath started, letting them know that she's back safely, that all is well. When he hangs up, he hears her splashing around in the tub, and only then does he go downstairs and see Mark loitering by the door, almost as if unsure of what to do. 

They make eye contact. Blue meets brown uncertainly, hesitantly, tentatively. 

The spell breaks, after a beat. Jack crosses, almost runs, across the length of the floor space between them and yanks him into a hug, shaking and trembling. He claws at Mark's shirt and grips it between his fingers, as if afraid to let go, as if afraid that if he stops holding on Mark will disappear.

But then Mark hugs him back, pulling him in closer, and tighter, and all of Jack's broken pieces begin to stick themselves back together.

~~

_“I called you so much.”_

_“I was giving you space.”_

_“It's been over a month.”_

_“Space.”_

_“I wanted to apologize. I did apologize.”_

_“I didn't hear. I don't have my phone. Wade took it from me.”_

_“Why the fuck did he do that?”_

_“To make sure I didn't try to contact you before it was time.”_

_“How long was that supposed to be?”_

_“Just a while longer.”_

_“I missed you.”_

_“I missed you too.”_

_“I'm sorry.”_

_“I know.”_

~~

Jack goes to his room and grabs Mark's key from the nightstand. He hands it back to him and Mark takes it, with unsure fingers. He gazes upon it as if it is an alien object, unfamiliar to him, and he looks back up at Jack, curious as to why it's in his hands.

“It's yours,” Jack says simply, swallowing. “If you still want it.”

It's an apology still, and dropping the key into his pocket Mark pulls him into another embrace, and says so softly, so quietly, “I forgive you,” and it's enough to make Jack unravel all the way, losing himself. 

He unloads on Mark, giving him all the reasons for his stress and anger and why he had snapped, not trying to excuse himself but just to tell him, to let him know, and Mark listens as he always does, never breaking eye contact and holding his hand, smoothing his thumb over his skin. 

Mark whispers to him, telling him that he understands, but he makes Jack promise that he'll talk to him next time, that he'll let Mark carry some of his burden, next time. Jack can only think that there's going to be a next time, and next time entails a future, and nothing makes him happier.

Jack promises. They share a kiss. Then another. Then another. Sam comes down in her pajamas and sees them, squealing happily at the sight before her. 

~~

_“Jack?”_

_“Hm?”_

_“I love you.”_

_“I love you too.”_

~~

It ends with falling plastic.

Just the way it's meant to be.

When Jack hears the sound of several cups clattering to the floor, he rushes into the kitchen, only to see Sam sitting on the counter, cheeks puffed out in irritation.

“Who put my favorite cup at the back?” she demands, and Jack almost laughs.

Mark comes in. He takes one look at the mess on the floor and laughs for Jack, tossing his head back as he does. Jack wonders what's so funny, to him at least, but doesn't say anything as Mark stacks all the cups into one another, scooting past Sam to put them back in the cabinet. 

“At least they're in the right place this time,” Mark says, and Jack's heart nearly melts.

They exchange a smile, Mark kisses Sam's head, mumbling his apologies for putting her cup in the back, then he kisses Jack, just because he can. The scene before him feels so right. Sam is smiling as Mark pours juice into her cup, and Mark's smiling at her, warm and sweet. Jack himself is smiling. So much love fills the room. It all fits. It's perfect.

He thinks there is room in his family for Mark after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments & Kudos are always appreciated. Thank you!


End file.
